Endure
by Talia Ali
Summary: Complete. Twenty-five years later, the Yu-Gi-Oh gang have lives outside of weird Egyptian artifacts and Duel Monsters. They meet up again at their 25th high school reunion to indulge in hilarity. Chapter 3.
1. They Don't Make Hair Dye in Blue?

Okey doke, everyone, we might as well get the mandatory bits over with so we can get at the story, ne? Hope you enjoy this. It came to me as my mom left for her 25th high school reunion, and from listening to John Meyor's No Such Thing. Sorry if some of the characters are a little OOC, but they _are_ supposed to be older. Here we go!

Disclaimer: I don't even own the Yugi in Yu-Gi-Oh. ~sniff~

As if you nice people couldn't figure this out  ^_^:

/Yugi's mind speech/

//Yami's mind speech//

'Yami and Yugi talking in their soul rooms'.

Chapter 1--What's with the Hair? And No Buckles, travesty!

"Yugi!"

The man turned at his name and smiled welcomingly as another person approached him. He'd met at least sixty people just in the last ten minutes. He'd known them all, more or less, during his high school years. A crystalline wine glass held lightly between his fingers, he waited for the woman to struggle through the crowd toward him, contemplating her face. She didn't look familiar, but few people here did. Joey he had kept in touch with, and Tristan lived only a few hours away, so those were people he was happy to see. Yugi continually ran into Bakura, once every couple of months. He had lost track of Tea as she moved around with her ballet troupe, only checking occasionally to see where she was this month. Paris, Singapore, New York, it was anybody's guess as to where her next (infrequent) post card would come from. Seto Kaiba's picture continually appeared on dozens of different computer magazines. But most people he had to ask for names.

Everyone had changed a lot in the intervening years. Even relative constants like hairstyles had been tamed down or dyed, leaving a wash of people Yugi didn't know. It _had_ been twenty-five years, after all. These people weren't teenagers anymore.

Yugi was one of the only people who hadn't changed significantly. His hair was shorter, flatter, but he still retained the distinctive three colors—blonde bangs and red and black hair. He wore a suit today. The complete absence of any sort of buckle shocked some of the old people he used to know. Fortunately, or not so much, he still remained at the not-so-towering stature of four feet nine inches. A lot of the ex-students, faced with a massive crowd of adults with _normal_ hair colors, leapt at the first person they could recognize. A lot of the time, he was it.

            "Yugi Motou," the woman said warmly. She boasted a flattering blue sundress that draped her figure and shoulder-length chestnut hair, bound nicely into a bun. Yugi desperately scrambled for a name, any name, any girl he had known that could turn into this pleasant-looking forty year old woman. "How have you been?"

            "Uh, quite fine." Yugi confirmed. He floundered another minute before succumbing. "You've changed so much that I don't recognize you."

            "It's Miho Nozaka, Yugi!" she laughed, not the least bit put out. "I suppose I do look a bit different."

            "Miho! I haven't talked to you in years. You look really nice." Yugi said happily.  He discreetly scrutinized Miho's hair. Hadn't it been purple back in high school? Maybe he had been mistaken. "We didn't see each other after college, did we?"

            "No, not really." Miho self-consciously tucked her hair behind her ear. "Did you go on as a teacher?"

            "Yeah, I've been teaching grade school." Yugi twirled his wine glass between his fingers. "Are you still in Biology?"

            "No," Miho shrugged. "I was in the field for a couple years, but I went back to school to get my decree in kinesiology. Now I'm a physiotherapist."

            "Wow." Yugi oohed. "Are you and, uh, Naizu still together?"

            "No, we broke it off. I met Ryan overseas when I was thirty. He's around here somewhere." Miho scanned the crowd. "Oh well. We got married and now we have twin boys."

            "Congratulations!" Yugi said enthusiastically. "How old are they now?"

            "Eleven," Miho said proudly, and fished a picture of them from her purse. Two round-faced, grinning boys with blonde hair posed together. "How about you? Did you make some lucky woman a Mrs. Yugi Motou?"

  
            "No, not yet, I'm afraid." Yugi said solemnly. "Heigh ho, it's the bachelor's life for me."

            "Well, those girls don't know what they're missing," Miho winked demurely at him. Yugi blinked and felt a bit of heat rise to his cheeks. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go and make sure my husband isn't schmoozing with any of the other fine looking ladies around here."

            "Nice seeing you again," Yugi responded pleasantly. She's married, he scolded himself. She wasn't flirting with you!

            "Me too. We should keep in touch." As Miho began to turn away, she snapped her fingers and turned back to the short man. "Tea was around here somewhere, looking for you. Last I saw she was talking with Tristan Taylor and a load of other people. Maybe she's still there?"

            "Thanks. I'll go look for her." Yugi waved a little and then turned in a full circle, cursing his height for the umpteenth time. He couldn't even pick out Tristan, who towered over most other people here. Ah well. Short people lived longer.

            Twenty-five years had passed, Yugi mused as he plunged into the crowd, acknowledging occasional salutations with a smile and a wave. It wasn't that high school had been such a pleasant experience for him, other than making his lifelong friends and getting the Millennium Puzzle. He had been continually frightened, of being picked on, of failing, of losing his friends and family. Gods knew that, more often than not, his studies were the thing he least concentrated on. It was about the games and the friends back then, and schoolwork was extremely low priority. College had been a cold shock, but teaching was a snap. Yugi loved working with small children, playing with them, talking with them, teaching them the essentials. They liked to identify with him, with his eternally optimistic view of the world and easygoing nature. Besides, the tallest of them were at his eye-level.

            He couldn't see Tristan, but he came across Tea fairly quickly. Hanging on the arm of her lean but muscular husband, she was the center of attention of at least a dozen people. Tristan was not among them. Of all the people in their graduating class, only a few had become famous. Tea the dancer was among the chosen few. Although her face was lined with graceful descent into middle age, she had the body of a twenty-five year old and wore a dress to emphasize those contours. Yugi stopped at the edge of the crowd, feeling a bit out of place. Tea told a story about how she and, uh, Antoine had gotten engaged. In the city of love, on top of the Eiffel Tower, they had practiced their newest dance together. Antoine had fallen on his knees and professed his undying love to her, and of course she loved him with the same _passion_.

            Maybe later, Yugi decided, staring at his childhood friend and her 'soul mate'. When she wasn't acting and putting on a fake French accent. 

            "Hey Yug!" A firm hand grasped Yugi's shoulder. "Long time no see! How're you doing?"

            Yugi broke into a happy grin and whirled to face Joey and Tristan. "Hey guys! How's it going?"

            "We just broke away from the Pirouette Posse," Joey jerked his head at Tea, who was describing the newest dance she and Antoine were performing. "Tea's changed a lot."

            "I see that." Yugi seriously regarded his oldest friend and turned away from her. "Anyway, how have you guys been? It's been, what, a year or so?"

  
            "Must be at least that," Tristan nodded. "I haven't seen you since I last came to Domino."

            "Is your wife here?" Yugi looked around but couldn't see her. Of course.

            "Yeah, Leia's over by the podium, trying to expand her contacts." Tristan rolled his eyes fondly. "She's talking with Mai."

            "You wouldn't believe how many times someone has suggested a new fashion to Mai-chan," Joey commented tolerantly. "She's had to come talk to us—us!— to vent already about three times. Just tonight, there's been about thirty suggestions to bring back the stripes."

            "It's just because everyone has these ugly stripe-patterned jackets in their closets that cost 'em a hundred and fifty bucks and they'll never be able to wear them again." Tristan nudged his friend knowingly.

            "Well, I don't see how it's my fault." Joey led them towards the drinks table. Yugi still had his wineglass in hand, but followed anyway. "I wear stripes once, _once_, to one of Mai's glam-scams, and all of a sudden it's everywhere."

            "Mai was horrified, wasn't she?" Yugi recalled with a smile.

            "For about the first five minutes, she reamed me out," Joey rubbed his cheek abashedly. "But then she started designing the fall wardrobe and completely forgot about me."

            Yugi laughed with Tristan. Joey picked up one of the cups filled with (cough cough) fruit juice and sipped at it. He wasn't trying to make a fashion statement today, in a plain suit and typically Joey tie (today it was red elephants on a black and blue background), but when one's wife owned Vogue, you dressed sharply. The ties were the only thing that Mai let Joey run wild with. Her children were just as neatly dressed, with a sixteen-year-old girl who showed signs of her mother's early fixation on corsets and a young boy who seemed to have absorbed his father's manners or lack thereof.

            Tristan's situation was a bit different. With his wife as co-president, the Taylor's ran a small advertising company in Tokyo. They were well off, with one older boy who was just about to graduate from high school. His family stopped in on Yugi quite often (Nate still called him 'Uncle Yugi').

            "How's everything?" Joey asked his distant friend. Yugi smiled up at Joey cheerfully. "Sorry I haven't been out here in a long time. Mai's sort of finicky about traveling and Chelsea and Garin have school."

            "I understand, Joey," Yugi assured him. "I know you come whenever you can. Everything's good with me."

            "I'm sorry about your Grandpa," Joey murmured softly, placing his hand on Yugi's shoulder. The wide violet eyes dimmed a bit in remembered pain, but he still smiled bravely. Solomon Motou had passed away a matter of months before, after battling leukemia for three years.

            "That's all right. It was his time," Yugi responded softly. Although the tears did not fall, his eyes were shinier than usual. After a few seconds, he blinked them away. "How are your kids doing?"

            "Fantastic! I can't get Chelsea to listen to me, though," Joey grimaced a little. "She's a teenager, all right."

            The words sounded funny coming from his friend's mouth. Over the years, Joey had learned a few things. Being married to Mai had changed him a lot in some ways. He was less (_less_) arrogant, more respectful and patient. Although, Yugi mused, he didn't quite know how that had come about from Mai. Tristan too remained steadfast to his loved ones, becoming a doting father and husband to match his devotion to his friends.

            Yugi talked and laughed for quite a while with his old buddies, catching up on years past a reminiscing on old times. What had once been terrifying became lighthearted. Nobody was in the mood for deep conversations just yet, so they talked about the way they used to duel ("I am not a dog!"), about people they used to know, and about mysteries they had never solved. Eventually the time came for supper and they sat down at their table, still talking jovially with one another. Bakura still had not shown up, to everyone's disappointment, but they didn't let that get in the way of catching up.

            Mai and Leia joined them, still talking avidly with one another. Both were expert at small-talk with people they had nothing in common with, but for once this seemed genuine. They discussed, of all things, politics. Mai didn't even pause in her vocalizations to greet Yugi, but gave him a little smile and a wave. Leia barely noticed they had sat at all, her sparkling brown eyes lighting up with the challenge of the debate. Her hair was black as pitch, taking in all the light from the overhead lamps greedily. Convoluted silver earrings were stark against her dark skin, and a diamond glittered from the fourth finger of her left hand. Tristan watched her talk with a fond smile tugging across his lips. Yes, he had met his match in Leia. He drank in her every move, smile and word.

            Joey, on the other hand, retained his old habit of shoving as much food as possible down his gullet, only now he did it politely. Knives and forks were properly used, he politely sat up straight and dabbed his lips occasionally with the cloth napkin. But there was no need for chewing in Joey's world. He handled the knife like a samurai, slashing apart his meat into small, swallowable pieces. Mai completely ignored him. He completely ignored Mai. Yugi supposed they showed their affection in private, since Joey had shown all signs of being perfectly happily married.

            Ah, yes, the gang was all here. Yugi felt a sense of happiness permeating his soul. All except Tea, who had taken her clique to a nearby table, and Bakura, whose presence was noticeable, they were complete, they were a group again. Just like old times.

            Yugi's mind stirred a little, like waves lapping at the side of a pond. He could feel the hint of a smile, the presence of another standing behind his right shoulder, taking in the warm surroundings. The man wanted to turn to face his darkness, but it was not here in the physical world. He would have to go inside himself to face the other half of his soul.

            The hikari moved his eyes to his plate and let them relax. Once he wasn't focusing on anything, he saw the inside of his soul room. It was bright and cheery, no longer strewn with toys and books but his all the same. The door was a bit ajar so his yami could see in. Yugi walked over to it and increased the size of the gap. Sure enough, Yami Yugi waited on the other side.

            'You can come in whenever you want, you know,' Yugi told him with amusement. 'You don't have to wait for me.'

            'I know,' Yami Yugi threw his smile at his lighter half. He was still taller than Yugi by nearly a full head, but his haircut was the same (minus the blonde streaks). He relaxed today in a sleeveless shirt and loose pair of pants, both in blue-black. Both hikari and yami had aged together, gaining a few lines in their faces but not much else. 'But I didn't want to disturb you.'

            'You never do,' Yugi left the door open and cocked his head up at the taller man.

            'What about when you're reading stories to your kids and I tell you we need eggs?'

            'That's different,' Yugi protested.

            'Tea's changed, hasn't she?' Yami gestured upwards and outwards, changing the subject.

            'Yeah, she has,' Yugi cast a sad look out that way. 'But we haven't really been close these past few years.'

            "YUGI!"

            'Hang around, if you like,' Yugi invited Yami as he prepared to go out into the world again. His darker half nodded and sat on the bed, drawing his legs up in an athletic tailor's position.

            "I was waiting for that to happen," Joey said smugly as Yugi swiveled his head to look at him. The blonde had paused in his eating and now wiped his mouth with his napkin. "How's ol' Yami bearing up these days?"

            "Good, good," His friend nodded. Joey set down his knife, albeit reluctantly. Yugi continued, "He's running the Game Shop while I teach."

            "He must be happy with that."

            "He was thrilled when Grandpa gave the place to him," Yugi smiled, remembering Yami's incredulous, awed reaction. "It suits him perfectly, you know?"

            "Yeah, that's the Yami I know." Joey confirmed. He looked expectantly over Yugi's outfit. "So, where is it?"

            "What? Oh, the Puzzle?" Yugi gave Joey a little grin and retrieved it from his breast pocket. He had some trouble figuring out where to stick it, since it looked strange in his pants pocket (Yami had made an extremely lewd comment). If he didn't do up his jacket, it was barely noticeable. The brown string had long since been replaced with a metallic chain. It remained the same after all these years, the upside-down pyramid with the engraved eye of Horus. "I didn't think it was appropriate to wear to a formal occasion."

            //Hey!// Yami protested.

            "Well, it's true," Yugi said aloud for the others' benefit. He glanced again at the glistening golden puzzle and stowed it away in his pocket. 

            "Does Yami want to join us? I'm sure we could dig up an extra chair around here somewhere," Tristan glanced around. There were a few people who had not shown up, and others were hauling away their chairs now. He glanced at Yugi questioningly, ready to get up.

            /Well?/

            //I don't know…//

            "Is he dressed for the occasion?" Joey snorted. "Or is he still hanging on to the buckles and the school uniform?"

            "I'm not," Yami began, appearing suddenly and making the whole table jump, "Going to stand idly by and have my sense of fashion mocked. Where's that chair?"

            He motioned for Tristan to sit down and went off to find another chair. Joey grinned at Yugi. Yami had been wearing the same thing Yugi was, as he always did when he materialized. His casual clothes would not have gone over well in the black-tie event. 

            Yugi quirked his lips a little to himself. Yami _had_ been wearing a neck belt in his soul room.

            "I see he's still expert at those poltergeist-type entrances."

            Yugi nodded. "Good job at getting him out. He would have moped all night if you didn't challenge his dignity."

            //Hah!//

            Joey grinned. "So I still got the touch? Fantastic."

            "_Have_ the touch, J-chan," Mai corrected, barely breathing as she switched conversations in an eye blink. In the next beat, Yami was back with his chair and Mai was talking to Leia as if she'd never been interrupted. Yugi was barely certain Joey's wife _had_ said anything to them. Tristan and Joey moved over so Yami could fit in the crowded table.

            "Long time no see, Yami," Joey said jovially. "How's tricks?"

            "It has been a long time," Yami admitted. He sank down into the upholstered chair. "As Yugi said, I'm 'bearing up'."

            Joey raised his eyebrows at the challenge to his speech patterns, but was interrupted by the valedictorian tapping the microphone and saying "Hello?" into it repeatedly. Only Tristan and Yugi saw Joey and Yami make identical expressions of disgust as the speeches began. Joey slumped into his seat as people he _never_ wanted to hear talk to him ever again told them how wonderful it was to see how they've grown up. Yami, on his part, was put out that he had chosen to appear at this part of the night.

            //There is no way I'm listening to these people talk for hours,// he growled to Yugi.

            "No way," Yugi said firmly to him. If he said it out loud then Yami wouldn't be able to retreat without losing face. "If we have to sit through this, so do you."

            "I was barely _in_ high school," Yami whispered fiercely. "I slept through most of it."

            "So did I, and I have listen to this." Joey retorted.

            "Is that a challenge, Joey Wheeler?" Yami smiled thoughtfully.

            "Well, if it'll keep you out, yeah." Joey smirked. "Betcha you can't make it through the speeches without talking to anyone." As Yami began his trademark return smirk, Joey added, "And that includes that Vulcan mind meld that you and Yugi do."

            The darker half of Yugi's soul let his smirk fade somewhat, but brought it back in a moment with a vengeance. Yugi thought it amusing that Yami actually understood the Star Trek reference. Then again, the lighter half mused, there wasn't a lot on daytime TV, and the shop was slow until the kids got out of school. Yami nodded. "Deal. And if you lose…"

            "He'll bark at Kaiba," Tristan finished quickly. Yugi and Yami shot him near-identical grins of approval. Joey huffed for a few minutes, not eager to bring the 'dog' nickname back into Seto Kaiba's memory.

            "All right. But if I win, I get to make Yami do any one thing I want." Joey inserted triumphantly. He glanced at Yugi. "You'll tell us…?"

            "Of course." Yugi grinned at his other half. Yami mock-scowled back at his hikari's apparent betrayal, but winked a second later.

            //No problem,// he told Yugi confidently. //Wheeler's as good as canine-ized.//

            "That's the last thought until the speeches are done." Joey correctly interpreted their mutual instant of blankness. He glanced at his watch "Starting… now."

            Yami instantly turned back to the podium, composing his face into a mask of attentiveness. Yugi chuckled and leaned over to Tristan.

            "Ten bucks says he can't do it," Yugi murmured in his old friend's ear.

            "I'll take you up on that," Tristan said with a broad grin. "He looks determined."

            "Deal."

            "Deal."

            They discretely shook hands and reclined in their chairs, keeping one eye on Yami and the other on their graduating year's valedictorian.

            Mai and Leia talked on.

There's the end of Chapter 1, people! Look excited, I actually started a fanfic! And for all those people that are wondering where Bakura and Seto are (I actually have to think about what I'm going to do with Bakura… oops!), I have plans to include both of them later. Please be super nice and review, or else Guybrush Threepwood (TaliaAlidoesnotownMonkeyIsland) will hold his breath for ten minutes and pass out (purple is sooo not his color). Next chapter: The result of Yami's challenge. Will Joey have to bark at Kaiba, or will Yami have to do something… unmentionable??

Press the pretty little button and review!


	2. Big Surprise! Guess Who's the Weener!

Well, what can I say? This chapter took _far_ too long to post, and I'm genuinely sorry about that. It's just not… right, to me. It's not inspired like the first chapter was. Less humor here, but some. This chapter is less plot and more back-story. So if you're wondering exactly how everything came together for the guys, here it is. 

Thank you SO MUCH to all of my reviewers! I almost died when I saw how many reviews I had, but I had to stay strong! I've never had reviews before, so this was particularly exciting. Thanks to Sad Andy to urging me to post the next part, and to lily22, Indigo Tantarian, Chibizoo, Silver Dragon (go dragons!), Juvi, tefla and Myotismon13 (I **love** Murray! Thank you for knowing what I'm talking about!) and everyone else for their great feedback.

Here's that bit again:

/Yugi to Yami/

//Yami to Yugi//

Disclaimer: I disclaim Yu-Gi-Oh. Er.

**********************************************************

Endure   Chapter 2 By Talia Ali 

Even Yugi had problems staying awake through the valedictorian's speech. Yami had gloated silently when he saw the prematurely balding man at the podium only had two index cards. He shot a glance at Joey as Mr. Kino Matumura cleared his throat noisily and fidgeted with his tie. Joey looked pained. It didn't seem as if their valedictorian was all that comfortable with public speaking. Gripping the edges of the wooden podium with white fingers, the graduated class could see beads of sweat hanging on his forehead. 

Unfortunately, it turned out to be just the opposite case. Mr. Matumura didn't use his cue cards, except to read off 'inspiring' quotes from them.  Joey (and Yugi) grew more triumphant as Kino related the fifth story about his three-year-old grandchild to his peers, gesturing widely and causing his glasses to wobble precariously on his nose. Yugi sank into his chair, not even pretending to listen to the speech.

The Game King approached this challenge as he did every other—with confidence to spare. The look on his face indicated that he wasn't about to beaten by this foe. This caused Mr. Matumura no little distress. Yami continually glared at him, twin flaming suns daring him to do his worst. Dropping his cue cards and muttering apologies to the crowd, he shot nervous glances at Yami before clearing his throat and finishing his story about his daughter's first date.

Yugi looked about the hall that had been rented for the Reunion, taking in the tacky, fifty-year-old brown-yellow trimming, the single disco ball hanging from the ceiling, and the blue linoleum tiles. The hall smelled musty and disused. The tattered black and white streamers criss-crossing the ceiling didn't help brighten the place very much. The outside darkness pressed in though the high, narrow windows, attacking the yellow light cast by the bulbs in the plastic chandelier.

For a group this large, though, this had probably been one of the few places they could pick. Their graduating class was massive, over 600 people. That was a lot of people to serve, seat and cater to, especially when many brought their spouses.

_It's amazing to think that all these people have lives and careers now_, Yugi mused as he looked out over them. It was remarkable and a little scary to know that the teenagers he had known were middle aged and aging. There came a point in Yugi's adolescence when it seemed things could never change. He had his friends, and his Yami, and his Grandpa. Nothing else was needed. He could be sixteen forever and not care.

But years passed with the ease of minutes, and the world demanded that he mature. Compliantly, he and his friends enrolled in university. They grew apart as they learned their courses. Tea was gone, off to America to make her fortune. Tristan was embroiled in his business degree and Yugi struggled through education. Joey drifted from discipline to discipline. He and Mai met up again after three years and discovered a mutual attraction. How that had played out Yugi had no idea. He didn't find out until about six months after that, when Mai planned a surprise birthday party for Joey. Soon after, Mai wore a small ring on her left hand. Joey blushed furiously whenever anyone mentioned it, and he completed his business degree soon after.

Eventually the time had come where Yugi's friends just weren't around any more. He and Yami fought their own battles, gamed their own games. Tristan was busy with his new company and his new wife. Tea vanished into the world, and Joey and Mai combined their talents to get hired by a fledgling fashion company in the USA. Needless to say, Yami had never lost his competitive edge and love of gaming. While Yugi still loved puzzles, life just didn't revolve around Duel Monsters any more. The game had long since fallen from vogue in the general populace; replaced a few scant years later by a new fad. Only those who came to challenge Yami for his title used them anymore, although Yami could and did best challengers in any game they chose.

Yugi's thoughts drifted to himself. The majority of the time, he and Yami were separate. The magic of the Millennium Puzzle allowed Yami his freedom once the threat of the Shadow Games was past. He was fully capable of living his separate from Yugi now, but had assured his little Light that he had no intention of doing so. Unless some Pegasus-like idiot re-discovered the game and brought it back. The idea both frightened and appealed to him. He missed the old days.

Now he had his kids, and he had Yami, the Game shop, and the memory of his grandfather. Some days that was enough. Most of the time, he felt stunted and incomplete, like a sculpture whose sculptor had died partway through his carving.

Who would finish him? Yugi thought, yawning a little. The warmth of the room and the wine in his blood combined with the valedictorian's drone to make his eyelids droopy. _What's the harm_? the man wondered. This is going to be a while. I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes. Just a few...

"I DID IT!"

Yugi's chin flew off his chest and his eyes fluttered for a minute. What the... where...? Yami? What was he screaming about so early in the morning? The chair disappeared from beneath him and he hit the floor with a thump, jolting him awake. Oh right.

Yami grinned down at his lighter half with one hand raised in triumph. His red eyes sparkled with the thrill of the game. Yugi silently inclined his head at the rest of the room. The massive room was silent.  From his position next to his chair, Yugi could see wide eyes looking at him from all directions. Nobody so much as coughed, although many were yawning. 

Yami glanced around abashedly as he lowered his hand. He rubbed his head sheepishly. A hint of rouge darkened the spirit's cheeks. He showed his teeth in a highly embarrassed grin. Yugi muffled a snort. Tristan had no such limitations. It echoed off the scuffed linoleum like the beat of a snare drum.

"Sorry," the yami muttered, sitting down at his seat.  Yugi levered himself off the floor and looked around the table, holding his hand to his head. He had fallen asleep, despite all of his best intentions. The others seemed to have faired similarly.

One of Tristan's eyes was bigger than the other. A bit of drool remained at the corner of his lip. Mai looked a little rough around the edges and Leia was trying to fix her hair. It was flat on one side, as she had been resting it on Tristan's shoulder. And Joey's forehead was still firmly planted in the table. He was snoring.

"Joey? Joey, wake up!" Yugi said urgently. Yami poked the blonde man's shoulder diffidently.

In response, Joey turned his head over, smiled sleepily, and murmured: "Now now, Mai-chan. We'll be late if you keep this up."

"JOEY WHEELER!" Mai sputtered. Yami snickered. All embarrassment instantly drained from him. Everyone around the table got eyes in varying sizes of wide. "You wake up this instant or I swear we'll never be 'late' again!"

"Wha... huh? But Mai!" Joey protested as he came out of his stupor. His wife breathed fire at him from across the table, practically being restrained by Leia. 

"But Mai-chan, I thought you liked... uh oh." He flushed as he met the wide eyes of the rest of the table. (A/N: O.o) Yami crossed his arms and waited for Joey's eyes to alight on him. \

"I win," he said simply as soon as they did. Joey's face dropped into an expression of abject horror. He laughed, "And you know what that means!"

"Game penalty!" Tristan crowed, pumping his fist in the air. Hugging Leia with an arm, he turned to Yugi, "You owe me!"

"But..." Joey sputtered, then firmed his chin.  "How do we know you won?"

"Yeah, Yami," Yugi pointed out. He really didn't want to have to pay Tristan his ten. Yami blinked at him, puzzled as to why his lighter half doubted his gaming skill. "Was anybody awake to make sure? I know I was asleep."

They looked around the table. Mai was busy reapplying lipstick, no answer needed there. Leia just shook her head, and Tristan thoughtfully wiped the trail of spit from his chin. Joey rubbed his forehead, glaring at Yugi's darker half. Yami goggled at all of them.

"I suffered!" he exclaimed. "I won fair and square. Besides, whom would I talk to? Myself?"

"Hey guys," A familiar face strolled up with a drink in his hand and took a seat at the table. Everyone stared at Bakura for a minute. He tossed his white hair back over his shoulders and shifted uncomfortably. Softly spoken words filled the ears of everyone present. "What's new? I got here a couple of minutes ago, but you all seemed a little, well, occupied."

One by one, everyone turned to stare at Yami, who glared back. "Don't look at me like that! I didn't even glance at him!"

"Are you sure?" Joey said skeptically.

"Oh, right. I heard all about the dare." Bakura's brown eyes twinkled at the table. Yugi began to smile. So Yami _had_ lost after all! Yes! How else would Bakura know? Ten dollars to him. Bakura turned to Yami. "So when are you going to make Joey do it?"

"Bakura," Yami growled warningly. He looked a little panicked. Yugi started to run through fun ideas for Yami to do on his dare. Joey wasn't the only one with a history with Seto Kaiba... Meanwhile, Yami threatened, "I swear..."

"Hah! See?" Joey prodded Yami's shoulder. Either he had gotten bolder or more insane during those years of separation from Yami, because he didn't even acknowledge the terrifying glare that sent many a Hebrew running in the old days. Joey puffed up his chest proudly. "Thought you could get away with it, huh? Not on Wheeler's watch!"

"I didn't say anything to him!" Yami continued to growl. Maybe, Yugi mused, they could force Yami to admit to Kaiba that the executive was the better gamer. No, that would be too much, especially for the Game King. What about the same dare that was Joey's? Yami barking at Kaiba; that would be precious. Why hadn't he brought the video camera?

Apparently Bakura recognized the warning signals of Yami's severe irritation. He laughed and Yugi's heart dropped as he said his next words. "No, he's right, he didn't say anything to me. I heard about it from Tea. She overheard you two talking. In fact, Yami seemed so enthralled with the man on the podium that I couldn't even get him to look at me."

"You mean he..." Joey started to edge away from the Game King. Yami didn't even pretend not to be full of glee. "Oh no."

"Oh yes!" Yami pounced on Joey's arm. The blonde man twisted and squirmed, trying to worm free with a fierce desperation. Yami was eerily firm and justifiably eager. Tristan rolled his eyes and sipped his drink. "We're going to find Kaiba right now."

"That's probably the first time ever that Yami's ever said that," Yugi confided to Tristan.

Tristan grinned and wagged a finger in his old friend's face. "Don't try to distract me. You owe me money."

//You bet against me?!// Yami demanded as he led a struggling Joey from the table. Joey was begging Yami to slow down and stop. Grabbing furniture as he passed, the blonde managed to drag three tables, two (occupied) chairs and five waiters. They were furniture, weren't they? The woman whose chair he grabbed beat him off with her purse (_I think I did a project with her once,_ Yugi mused). Unfortunately, it was made of metal. Joey covered his head in protest and Yami gained another five yards before Joey assaulted a waiter.

/All part of the fun,/ Yugi hid his smile behind his water glass. Ah well, at least he got to see _someone_ bark at Kaiba. The executive would be just as horrified and embarrassed as Joey. That was worth ten bucks any day.

Yami grumbled, //I remember when you were naïve and innocent.//

"Isn't winning part of the definition of the 'Game King'?" Mai demanded, snapping her compact closed and stowing in her purse. She had obviously grown used to her husband's 'antics', for Joey's display didn't faze her.  "And what game did Joey lose, anyway?"

"Joey dared Yami to sit through the speeches." Tristan smirked at Yugi. The teacher pulled out his wallet grudgingly and handed over the money. Counting the bills, Tristan added, "She's right, man. You should have known."

"Where are they going?" Mai looked a little alarmed as Joey continued to try to pull away from Yami's hand. It was futile; the Game King enjoyed winning the bet as much as he did gaming. In fact, Yami seemed to take a certain malicious pride in doling out his punishments. It was part of his nature. Yugi had rationalized that long ago. Besides, this was just for fun. The lighter half could sense his Dark's excitement at deviation from the norm. He supposed 'Mind Crush' and 'Obliterate' got repetitive after a while, although it had been years since those punishments had been used.

"Joey has to bark at Kaiba," Yugi mentioned. The blonde executive's mouth puckered into an 'o' of severe dismay. Slowly, her visage darkened. As Mai slammed her hands on the table, he, Bakura and Tristan 'eep'ed and shrank into their chairs. A dark aura wreathed the fashion guru.

"Not on my marriage certificate!" she declared, and stormed towards Yami.

/Uh, heads up?/ Yugi called to his other. Yami spared a glance for his lighter half, did a double take, and tried to pick up his pace. The resisting man at the end of his grip dug in his heels, grabbing a passing drink tray and succeeding only in making the floor slippery. He could sense Yami's urgency. There was no escape now. Mai was on them like sticky gum in hair.

//Urk!// Yami tried to hide Joey behind him, which looked a little ridiculous considering their respective heights. Joey's brown eyes peeked through Yami's hair spikes hopefully. The blonde diva looked him in the eye and asked him in a low, calm voice what the hell he thought he was doing.

Yugi chuckled. Bakura caught his eye as he smiled pleasantly as he took a chair. "So how have you been?"

"Pretty good." Bakura acknowledged. He leaned casually forward on the table, placing his chin on his hands. A low metallic clank came to the ears of all present. "Did you end up finding that car you were looking for?"

"No," Yugi shook his head regretfully. He'd had his eye on a 2010 GM Intellect in forest green when he last encountered Bakura, about six months ago in a used car lot. "My prospective seller pulled out. I had to settle for a later model. How about you?"

"He 'convinced' me to get a motorcycle." Bakura said sorrowfully. "He used Malik as a reason. Malik!"

Yugi raised his eyebrows thoughtfully. 'He' was most likely Yami Bakura. Although he was aware that Bakura and his yami got on all right most of the time, he couldn't repress the suspicious feelings he got around Bakura's darker half. Trying to kill and/or take the Puzzle from Yami and Yugi--not just once, but multiple times--tended to bias even the most understanding mind against a person. Consequently, Yami Bakura stayed out of their sight. He was probably watching even now from the Ring that was hidden beneath Bakura's shirt. 

The Millennium item owners began to drop from the scene about ten years ago. With the threat of the Shadow Games' return dissipating, Shadi had vanished from sight or sense, taking his Key and Scales with him. Malik and his sister disappeared soon afterwards. Bakura said he'd gotten a postcard from Isis in Bermuda. The concept of the Ishtars relaxing was a little difficult to stomach. Yami Bakura, with only the Puzzle in sight, had given up on his goal for ultimate power pretty quickly. Apparently. Yami suspected something. After everything he had put the two Yugis through, he gave up just like that? 

Yugi wasn't so sure that was all there was to it. Yami Bakura had to have some other motive. There was something powerful connecting Bakura and his yami. That something stopped Yami Bakura from beating his other prevented the actions that would harm others, and allowed Bakura to speak about his darker half with something more than tolerance. It was there, Yugi was sure, and Yugi Motou was never wrong about this kind of thing.

According to Bakura, Yami Bakura was almost--_almost_--a social creature these days. He had refrained from taking his frustration out on Bakura for years now. He helped his aibou make decisions, and got him out of tight spots. Bakura was almost... happy. Yes, he most definitely was. Bakura was happy with the way his life was being lived. Yugi suppressed a grimace, feeling a little guilty. How could he not be happy with his life when Bakura had even less than he?

"A motorcycle? Aren't those dangerous?" Yugi asked to cover his unnaturally long silence.

"Yes," Bakura laughed. His tone said, '_You know how he is'_. "Of course they are."

"Didja get the leather to go with it?" Tristan asked teasingly. He looked over Bakura's plain tux that contrasted sharply with his hair and pale face and nodded with approval. "Nice to see you, Bakura. I've only been hearing about you from Yugi for years."

"I heard that the Taylor Company is taking off," Bakura mentioned politely. "Congratulations."

"Thanks." Tristan gestured at his wife. "Have you met Leia?"

"No, I haven't had the pleasure."

While Tristan introduced them and Leia and Bakura nodded greetings, a sense of panic flared in the back of Yugi's mind. He jerked his head up at Yami, who was trying to fend Mai off. His other half looked more than a little desperate to end the confrontation Seeing Tristan, Bakura and Leia engrossed in some of the details of the stock market, he tapped into Yami's words to Mai. His eyes glazed over and he stared blankly out into space as the words and images filled his mind.

"We're not going to do any harm," Yami explained patiently. "Kaiba probably won't even remember the whole thing."

"There is no way you're making my husband a laughingstock." Mai crossed her arms and glared down at the shorter Yami. 

"It's all in fun. We made a bet. He lost." Yami glanced at Joey, who was not helping Yami's side at all. With good reason, of course. He didn't want to bark any more than Mai wanted him to bark.

"I don't care if the idiot did make a bargain. If he looks stupid, I look stupid too. And Mai Wheeler does not look stupid."

"Yeah Mai-chan!" Joey cheered her on.

"I don't think that was a compliment, Joey." A new voice intruded on the scene. Yugi got jolted out of the conversation with surprise. A woman with shoulder-length brown hair and piercing blue eyes hovered at the edge of the confrontation. She smiled pleasantly and waved with a well-toned and tanned arm.

"Tea?" Mai blinked as her runaway train bumped her off. Yami took the opportunity to haul Joey away while the rest of them were stunned.

//_Nobody_ takes away my game penalty,// Yami shouted in Yugi's mind, grinning like a maniac. //Oh, Kaiba…//

Choking back his laughter, Yugi stood and wound his way to Mai and Tea. He was eager to see his childhood friend and sometime crush again after far too many years apart. Her and Mai were having, ah, a 'discussion'. He could hear their low terse voices discussing something he was sure was important. As soon as he got within five feet of the two women, Mai fluffed out he hair, straightened her overly revealing gown and stalked past him.

The look she gave him as she passed was something of a puzzler. Within her purple eyes was the usual bit of indignation. Apparently Tea's appearance had startled her more than she had let on, because she didn't even look around to see where her erstwhile husband and his tormentor had gone. Mai, startled? Yugi shook his head and moved towards his oldest friend.

//I can't find Kaiba!// Yami growled within his mind. Yugi got a split second image of Joey pleading with Yami to let him go and grinned. Tea took that as a sign from the heavens and smiled down on him.

"Long time no see," she purred.

**********************************************************

Yep, that's it! Sorry it's a little shorter this time. I wanted to save Tea for next chapter. I'm planning a confrontation. ~rubs hands together eagerly~ There will be more humor next chap too, I promise.

As always, review. Or I will corrupt you. MWA HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!!!!! (Thanks to my teacher, Murray the evil talking skull, for teaching me how to laugh evilly. ~blows kiss~ You're a big softie at heart!)

Press button, make review! ~bows humbly~


	3. Where Joey is hauled around by his foot

Disclaimer: If I'm extraordinarily lucky, I may one day own a copy of Yu-Gi-Oh Volume 5 of the manga. I, however, do not claim any creative copyrights pertaining to Yugi Motou, Yugi's darker half (hereafter referred to as 'Yami'), Joey Wheeler, Mai Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, Ryou Bakura and his darker half (hereafter referred to as 'Yami Bakura'), Malik Ishtar (known as Marik Ishtar by fans of the Yu-Gi-Oh dub), Isis Ishtar, Rishid Ishtar (not that he is ever mentioned), Seto Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba, Tea Gardener, or Solomon Motou (hereafter known as 'Grampa'), nor do I claim to be in possession of any of the following terms: Millennium Puzzle, Millennium Ring, Millennium Rod, yami, school reunion, Shadow Games, Pharaoh, Tomb Robber, etc. As far as I know, Domino City, the location of the reunion, Turtle Game Shop, Tokyo (!) and New York (!!) are fictitious locations based loosely upon Japanese cities and shops. Except for New York, that is. That could be Chinese. I may claim some bit of creative license in the characters of Leia Taylor and Antoine, but only inasmuch as to their personalities (such as they are).

Stuff to Know:  
/Yugi to Yami./  
/Yami to Yugi./ 

Endure _Chapter Three_ by Talia Ali

"It has been a long time," Yugi said with a nod. "I can't remember the last time we really talked."

"I know. I've been frightfully busy with the troupe and all." A carefully manicured hand waved at the ceiling with a hint of disdain. "I haven't had the opportunity to come back to good old Domino."

The French accent had begun to creep back into her voice. Yugi barely noticed. The sight of Tea this close, with her hair done just so, her perfect hands, the deep brown eyes and that dress was making oatmeal from his brain matter. The dress was made of some kind of slinky material that showed off her contours, leaving very little to the imagination. Yugi's was not just any imagination, however, and gladly filled in the spaces left blank. In the span of perhaps three seconds, his flush nearly matched Tea's dress. Not to mention her glorious eyes, now looking pleasantly into his own or the little curls framing her face that he had to fight back a tremendous urge to tuck behind her ears. It had been long.

"Yami...! Ow...! Table...! WOULD YOU CUT THAT OUT??" Joey's voice interrupted Yugi's pleasant examination of his childhood friend. Glad of the opportunity to get his body under control, he grinned as the distinctive pair approached. Yami was hauling Joey around by his foot at the moment. A sharp turn sent Joey crashing into a table headfirst, knocking most of the cutlery and probably some brain cells onto the floor. Spotting them again, Yugi's darker half turned in their direction.

"Have you seen Kaiba yet?" He inquired of them, heedless of the four tables separating them and the dirty looks he was being given.

"I'm sure he's delaying his arrival until he can make a proper entrance." Yugi offered when Tea said nothing after a moment.

Smirking, Yami crossed the distance between them and pulled Joey towards the doors. "I'll see he makes a grand entrance, be sure of that."

"Some people never grow up," A woman at a nearby table sniffed before sloshing the rest of a bottle of wine into her cup and downing it in a swallow.

Joey, futilely still trying to struggle from Yami's viselike grip, was looking a little beat up from the rough treatment. Upon spotting the table they had been sitting at, he began to wave his arms as if he was trying to take off, trying to appeal to Tristan or Bakura or Mai, who was glaring suspiciously at Yugi's companion. Reminded of her, he smiled and returned his gaze to Tea.

To his dismay he found she was staring at Yami's back, her lips slightly parted and a blush to match Yugi's on her cheeks. Feeling as if his nails were being ripped off with a pair of red-hot tongs, the man was helpless to look away as he watched her beautiful eyes travel down to Yami's pants, which fit him very well. _Why can't she look at me like that?_ Yugi wondered with a hint of quiet desperation. To have those deep eyes caressing him with a glance... he shivered. As a breathy little sigh escaped her, Yugi tried not to notice how her chest strained against her dress when she did that and instead searched for a conversation topic.

"Where's Antoine?" he asked with a quick smile. He tried not to quail as Tea turned back to him. For less than an instant, he saw the heart and disappointment in her eyes before she banished them with pleasant cheer.

"Oh, around somewhere." She waved her hand negligently. "Slipped off to the men's room, I expect. I took the opportunity to come and talk with you."

"So you're doing well?" He resisted the urge to bounce on his feet, desperately wanting to keep her attention with him.

"Very well indeed." Tea said. "I shall have more time to come back to visit in the coming year, as I may choose which productions meet with my favor."

"I'm glad to hear that." Yugi nodded. "Are you working on any one right now?"

"Several." Somehow, the purely clinical once-over Tea executed on him was even worse than watching her undress Yami with her eyes. "And how are you? And Yami?"

_There's the crux of it all._ "We're doing all right. Yami runs the Turtle Game Shop now, and I'm teaching grade school."

"Your grandfather must be very glad of the help in the shop." Tea's eyes strayed to the door, where Yami had trapped Joey in the revolving doors. Somehow, they were soundproof, and Joey's holler at the top of his lungs went unheard, as did the pounding on the glass. Ignoring him entirely, Yami peered through the distorting glass to the parking lot outside.

A wild mop of white-blonde hair caught the corner of his eye, and Yugi saw that Bakura was heading towards the two of them. Check that, he amended. Yami Bakura was heading towards the frantic Joey and quietly smug Yami, who was in the process of telling his captive that he would run out of air and pass out if he kept shouting like that.

"Grandpa passed away a few months ago," Yugi said, on automatic as he watched the upcoming confrontation. It had been several years since Yami Yugi and Yami Bakura met face to face, but the confrontations were always interesting.

"Oh, Yugi, I'm so sorry!" Tea said with the first bit of genuine emotion she had displayed all evening. He glanced back at her and saw the genuine sorrow brimming in the depth of her sapphire eyes. Unable to help his increased attraction to the real Tea, he just nodded with eyes shadowed with the loss of the greatest influence in his life. The last of his birth family was gone now, with only Yami left. He no longer bothered to wonder what he would do without his guardian spirit slash darker half. It wasn't worth thinking about.

"Yami's running the Game Shop by himself, then?"

He just about did a face-fault right there and then. There obviously was only one thing on her mind. "Yes. He's very good at it, too. He says that running a company is only a few letters away from ruling a country."

Her laugh was a delight to him as well. It ran up and down his nerves and finally settled at the base of his spine. _This is ridiculous,_ Yugi told it firmly. _Tea is married! How can a crush last twenty years? Stop, you dirty mind!_

/Aibou, you have strange thoughts./

Naturally, the statement only made him blush harder. /Sorry./

/Joey's getting bori... _Bakura!_/

The statement was out loud as well as mentally. Yugi eagerly turned half of his mind to that bit of entertainment. Yami Bakura and Yami Yugi faced off in the confident gaming positions they always adopted. _Yamis never change,_ Yugi thought loudly enough so that his own would overhear. Yami spared him a dark thought.

"They never change, do they?" Tea echoed his thoughts. Anyone who was familiar with dark energy could see it stirring near the door. Anyone who wasn't just saw the bit of haze in the air that could easily be attributed to smoke or tipsiness. "I'm surprised they haven't killed each other yet."

"They actually look forward to these meetings," Bakura said from the table. "It gives them a challenge, I suppose. Come sit down, Tea."

"Yeah," Tristan nodded. "Since we grabbed you without your posse, come and visit your old friends for a while."

"They are awfully bothersome at times," Tea noted and slid into the chair that Yami had recently occupied. Yugi sat in his own, trying not to notice how close Tea was to him in the close confines of the overcrowded table. A flash of bare skin made him look down. He blinked and quickly looked at the ceiling, wondering why there was a cut in Tea's skirt nearly as long as her leg. It flashed Yugi quite a bit of finely toned thigh.

"Surrender the puzzle!"

"Never!"

"Can Yami Yugi even surrender the puzzle?" Leia asked with a slight frown.

"No," Yugi answered cheerfully, glad for the distraction, "That's my line. Yami's just making do."

To Tristan, Yugi said, "Double or nothing, I bet you Joey won't have to bark at Kaiba after all."

"Are you nuts? This is Yami we're talking about!" Tristan blinked at him. "You know better than I do that he _never_ relents when he has the opportunity to give a game penalty."

"I have a good feeling," Yugi said, grinning. "Bet you."

"You must be crazy. You're on!"

"... game of wits, in the Shadow Realm!"

Yugi groaned and said aloud, "Does it have to be in the Shadow Realm, Yami? We're enjoying the show, and we'll miss it if you go there."

/This is not fun and games, aibou!/

"He says it's not fun and games," Yugi relayed to the rest of the table.

"My yami doesn't really want to go in the Shadow Realm," Bakura confided. "He's feeling a little shaky and out of practice."

"So's mine," Yugi agreed.

"_Yugi!_"

"_Ryou!_"

"Sorry, Yami," Bakura and Yugi said together. They grinned briefly at each other.

"See you there, Pharaoh." Yami Bakura snarled and disappeared. His opponent was an instant behind him.

"Will those two ever grow up?" Mai said disdainfully.

"I think it's cute when the two of them fight like brothers." Tea said with a hint of adoration in her voice. "When they're not fighting over someone's life."

"You wouldn't think it was so cute if you were actually around for the last twenty years," Mai shot back. "After watching them go at each other for ten years or so, it gets old."

"I'm sure you were around a lot." Tea said with a derisive roll of her eyes. "I'm sure that your itinerary every week included watching Yami Yugi and Yami Bakura duel."

"I was around more than you were," Mai retorted. "We get a post card perhaps once every six years from you. Usually not, and we hear from someone that Tea Gardener passed through town, but was in a 'dreadful hurry' so couldn't talk!"

"I haven't been back to Domino," Tea said with puzzlement.

"_New York!_" Mai snapped. "Or are Joey and I just beneath your notice?"

Yugi exchanged a confused look with Tristan. Beside Tristan, Leia just sighed and swirled the wine in her glass. Reminded of Mai's unfortunate husband, he glanced over and saw two vaguely familiar people that almost recognized trying to pry the revolving door open. Joey was still pounding on the glass, looking frazzled.

"I was busy!" Tea exclaimed, her visage darkening. "I have no free time when I'm on tour!"

"Not even time for lunch with two old friends? No time for lunch in _twenty years_, when you've been through _twelve times_?"

Joey was drawing more of a crowd now as people noted his frantic attempts at escape from the mysteriously stuck revolving door. Four grown men pushing together could not even make it budge.

/Yami, what did you do to the door?/ Yugi asked. He could feel Yami concentrating on doing something draining. His mind filled with the good humor of his darker half, who (although he would never admit it aloud) was enjoying his battle.

/Busy, Yugi!/ Yami said just before his attention was diverted again.

/It's starting to look a little suspicious. They might call someone to open it soon./ Yugi sipped at his glass and quickly glanced at Joey again. His old friend's face was completely red with all the attention and his own inability to escape. The door was beginning to fog with his breath and all the physical activity. /Once Mai stops ranting at Tea and she notices him - she is going to notice, you know, he's making himself noticeable - she is not going to appreciate the humor of the situation./

/Oh dear Ra./ Yami said with no small bit of horror.

Across the table from him, Bakura choked on his own drink and very obviously bit back a smile. Yugi had the impression that Yami Yugi had said something to Yami Bakura, who had relayed it back to his hikari. Tea and Mai continued to snipe at each other, not taking notice of the rest of the world.

"I'd have wanted to see Joey, perhaps, but he's a package deal with you these days, isn't he?" Tea retorted. "And you're so pleasant as a lunchtime companion!"

Yugi was alarmed with the sheer viciousness of the continuing conversation. He opened his mouth to say something to intervene and slow down the coming fight, but Mai's words cut him off in mid-vocalization.

"Oh, so that's how it is?" Mai examined her nails casually. "You're no prize yourself, you know. Oh, _Antoine_! Je t'adore! Je t'adore, mon petit chou! Little cabbage my _foot_. How many times have you been married now? Three times? Or four?"

"_Three_. It is not my fault that they overlooked my personality when they expressed their devotion to me." Tea replied primly. Yugi's brain stopped in shock. "But that wouldn't matter with you. You just needed someone who would worship the ground you walked on, and you could train him from there, hm? What could you care for Joey?"

"I'll tell you what," Mai bit off, slamming her palms on the table and making the utensils rattle. "He's handsome and caring and a doting father and loyal husband. I don't know how you could see that, since you obviously don't have a single loyal bone in your body. Antoine's just a little _too French_ for you? He's just a little bit _boring_." As Tea opened her mouth, presumably to protest, Mai cut her off. "I heard you planning your next divorce to your little friends earlier. Don't bother denying it. And don't think any of us missed the way you were eyeing up Yami Yugi. And we're not going to let him become your next conquest, just to fulfill your twisted little impression of how the world works."

"Three husbands?" Yugi repeated weakly. "And getting another divorce? You never told me you had been divorced."

Tristan shot him a sympathetic look, being privy to his small friend's lifelong crush. Mai just lifted her chin and stared directly into Tea's eyes.

"Oh, Yugi, I was young. I didn't understand what a commitment marriage actually was." Tea didn't look at him, meeting Mai's challenging glare.

"You perhaps could have told your childhood friend that you had been through two other men and deemed them unworthy of your presence." Mai tilted her head and glared with her startling purple gaze. "Or was there some reason you didn't want to tell him? Perhaps a certain yami, who happens to be connected to our Yugi?"

Yami and Yami Bakura appeared out of thin air just then, near the growing crowd of people at the door. They still had their feathers ruffled and held their intimidation poses for a couple seconds. Simultaneously, they relaxed and began to ignore each other. Yami Bakura smirked at all the people gaping at them, whereas Yami Yugi was completely oblivious to their stares and shouldered through the crowd to the revolving door.

The crowd thinned and retreated from the two men who had apparently appeared from nowhere. The entire table was distracted from the battle between Tea and Mai by Yami Bakura's mocking laugh.

"What did you _do_ to it, Pharaoh?"

Yami Yugi growled wordlessly and bent to examine the base of the door. The glass was completely fogged over, and only Joey's hands were visible where they scrubbed at the glass, trying to keep a space cleared and failing. "I just sealed it shut, that's all."

"Did you fuse the gears?" Yami Bakura doubled over with laughter as Joey attempted to see through the glass and pressed his nose against it. His breath fogged it over in a few seconds, and all that was visible was his nose and chin. "He's going to pass out from his own heat in a few seconds! No wonder that Valentine's so keen on him!"

Yugi faced the table again to see Mai shooting a glare of absolute venom at Yami Bakura's hikari, who was looking very nervous and trying to edge towards Tea. The owner of Vogue glanced out towards the doors and then back at Tea, apparently torn between her Tea-battle and her Joey-rescue-mission. With a contemptuous sniff at Tea, she stood, threw her napkin on the table and stalked off.

"I think she's going to kill them," Bakura said very, very quietly. His voice nevertheless carried in the silence, and his Yami shot him a smug look.

Yugi and Tristan couldn't say anything to that. On his part, Yugi was far too distracted by the greater threat to his sanity - Tea. Her exposed thigh did nothing for him at the moment. He was fixated on her profile.

"Is that why you didn't tell me?" Yugi said softly, only to her. "Because of Yami?"

Tea bit her lip, but refused to look at him. She slowly flushed as she realized that Yugi had noticed her fixation on his yami. "For other reasons too."

"Why? I'm your friend, aren't I?"

"I didn't want you or Yami to think badly of me." Tea offered, seeming glad that she could come up with an alternative reason.

"We didn't get enough news of you to be able to judge you." Yugi was surprised to hear bitterness in his voice. Tea was too. She turned away from Yami to look at him. Encouraged, he pressed on. "Couldn't you have found more time than once every few years to write? Or maybe call even once?"

"It... outside friends were discouraged at... at the Academy." Tea said faintly. "I just... sort of grew used to it. I thought you and... and Yami would get used to it too."

"I didn't." Yugi was surprised to hear himself admitting it. To him, it felt like an admission of his crush on her, and he felt heat flush his cheeks "I didn't ever. I thought about you all the time."

"Oh Yugi," Tea flashed him a sympathetic look, and Yugi was suddenly struck with the impression that she felt he was... quaint. Her expression was absolutely condescending. It disturbed Yugi. "I'm sorry to have caused you such distress."

That was it, her invisible mask. It had drawn over her features in a split second, masking the true Tea and presenting only the world-weary Madame Gardener. Yugi was shocked when a strong aversion to this Tea rose up in his gut. He had been attracted to her when she wore this persona before. What had changed? His heart thumped.

"The atmosphere at the Academy was so very competitive. I had barely a moment to breathe, let alone think of other matters. With class and practice, my time was just eaten up." Tea waved a hand absently. "After I graduated, I, of course, was immediately snapped up by a troupe. It was just such a whirlwind that I was completely taken by it, and only managed a postcard when I could think again. And then it was off to the next city, and the next. I am so sorry for your... inconvenience... but it was simply a part of this frantic lifestyle that I have chosen. But I think the benefits to... the both of us outweigh these minor matters, do they not? After all, you helped shape the person I have become today. That is not something just anyone may say."

Yugi's mouth slowly dropped open as the speech progressed, struck with a sense of unreality. This was Tea? Was it? Or had someone, most likely one of Yami's enemies, possessed her? _Malik is in the Caribbean_, Yugi thought hazily. _I didn't think the Millennium Rod could stretch so far_. That had to be it, she had to be possessed. Where was Tea's fierce spirit and dedication to her friends? That couldn't have just evaporated in a few years of fame, could it? Where had the Tea gone who had drawn the happy face on their hands to bind them together in his fight with Kaiba for his grandfather's Blue Eyes? What about when she had fought Mai for him, or held him when all else seemed lost? Where was the girl who came through innumerable battles merely on the strength of her heart? Who was this person so presumptuous as to be masquerading as Tea?

"Are you feeling all right?" Tristan demanded of Tea, apparently coming out of the stunned stupor where Yugi found himself still trapped. "Are you sick?"

"I am perfectly fine, thank you." Tea smiled ingratiatingly. She smoothly rose from the table, flashing her thigh again to Yugi, who was oblivious. He didn't see her obviously displayed dancer's grace and finely formed body, only turning over her words in his mind. "If you'll excuse me, I believe I see my husband has returned from the restroom. It was a pleasure seeing you three again. Give my regards to the rest."

She nodded and smiled at them. Tristan and Bakura returned the smile, but Yugi merely stared into her face with confused purple eyes. With a wink for him, she returned to her table and her muscle-bound husband. Yugi couldn't seem to make his mind move forward. The feeling that Tea didn't take him quite as seriously as she had once, the impression that she placed herself on some kind of pedestal above him, and the sight of the careful, slightly bored condescension in her face shattered something in his heart.

As soon as Tea was out of hearing, Leia smacked her husband across the chest. Tristan protested loudly and raised his arms to fend off more blows. "_What?_"

"You could have introduced me!" she hissed. "What was I supposed to do, just sit here and smile?"

"I didn't introduce you?" Tristan blinked and tapped his chin. "I didn't, did I? Ow! Stop hitting me, Lei-chan!"

"Don't call me that!" She huffed, but nevertheless stopped pounding on him, choosing instead to cross her arms and look at the dingy ceiling. "How rude could you get? Thanks a lot!"

"I was distracted by Joey and the Yamis!" Tristan protested. "And I would have said something after that, only Mai started in on her, and it would have been... uh, awkward."

"Well," Leia admitted after a moment's thought, "I suppose so. You're off the hook this time. Count your lucky stars."

Tristan looked like a man who had just been delivered from the brink, and decided to show his appreciation. Depositing a firm kiss on her mouth, he told her, "I do, every day."

She melted and pulled him down to her in another kiss. Bakura and Yugi took the cue to look away and back towards their yamis. Yugi was slowly coming out of his stunned state, mostly by denying it had happened altogether. Yami was exactly the distraction he needed.

"What do you mean, you can't get it open?" Mai demanded. "You sealed it, didn't you? Oh, _someone unfog that!_"

Yami bent at the base of the door where the metal plate had fused with the concrete. Yami Bakura leaned against the wall and smirked when he thought Mai wasn't looking at him. Joey was still scrubbing at the glass, trying to see both his wife and the progress Yami made, managing to look utterly ridiculous.

"_That means you, Bakura!_" Mai thundered, and Yami Bakura leapt off the wall and touched the glass, mumbling something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like a death threat. The fog cleared as the white-haired spirit released a torrent of cold air inside. He managed a smirk at Joey's chattering teeth before Yami Yugi pushed him impatiently out of the way again.

"I should have known it was you blocking the door." An all-too familiar face approached from the side door, snapping a black umbrella closed. Seto Kaiba smirked at the visage of Joey in his glass prison, and coolly looked over Yami Bakura and Yami Yugi, who had risen to his feet with the sound of Kaiba's voice. Kaiba shared a tight nod with Yami, spared a glare that turned mutual in Yami Bakura's direction, and gave Mai another nod. He was about to address Yami Yugi when something else caught his eye. "What is Wheeler doing?"

Everyone (including the little crowd that had reformed when they saw that the world famous gamer and billionaire Seto Kaiba was here) turned to look at Joey, who looked like he was having little convulsions in his revolving door compartment. He was coughing or something, trying to address Kaiba. Then (for no apparent reason) he doubled over laughing and smacked the glass with a dull _thud_.

Apparently this was the last straw for the poor door, because fractures spread out from Joey's point of contact. They spread throughout the glass in seconds and paused like that for just long enough for everyone to blink. And then it shattered like the safety glass it was, spraying far into the mass of tables. Joey was left standing, stunned, in the wreckage that had been his prison.

As the glass finished settling, Yami Bakura started to laugh again. His voice echoed throughout the stunned silence of the room. Anyone who hadn't been paying attention to the action at the door before sure was now. The yami didn't seem to care that he was the focus of nearly a thousand pairs of eyes.

"So much for not causing a scene!" He clutched his mid-section with helpless mirth. "Wheeler, you just crack me up!"

And in the silence, he laughed even harder.

"Enough fooling around." Yami Yugi grabbed Joey by the shirt and deposited him by Kaiba. The crowd shifted their eyes from the white-haired laughing lunatic to the former pharaoh. Tristan shot Yugi a triumphant look. Yugi had the presence of mind to realize that he was about to lose his bet. "Let's finish this. Do it."

Joey drew himself up proudly, looked Kaiba in the face, and said:

"It's a pleasure to see you again, Kaiba."

"Likewise." Kaiba gave him a once-over before turning away to be escorted by his bodyguards to his seat. With the action apparently over, conversations began again around the room. Within seconds, Yami Yugi's next dangerous words were barely audible.

"What was that?" The dark spirit hissed.

"Me being polite to Kaiba?" Joey suggested with a smirk. He bypassed Yami to step over to his wife. Joey gathered her into his arms, dipped her low and firmly stole her next words with a kiss. When they took a break for air, he said, "Thanks for freeing me, Mai-chan."

"You better be grateful," she told him severely, but the impact of the statement was lost as she still rested in his arms. "You and I are going to have a long talk tonight."

"I'm always open to 'talk'." Joey kissed her again.

Yami crossed his arms and tapped his foot as the kiss went on... and on... and on... Finally he couldn't wait any longer. He tapped Joey's shoulder.

"We need to talk. Or rather, you need to bark," he told the blonde man.

"I did," Joey smiled down at Mai before releasing her. She sniffed and whipped out her compact to check her hair. He turned a rather smug smile on Yami Yugi. "And after all, you never said it had to be _audible_ to him, just that I had to do it."

Yami blinked. And again blinked. Yugi started to grin, and Tristan stared in disbelief. The 'coughing' in the revolving door... Yami exclaimed, "That's not fair!"

"Sure it is. I did it. You saw me, no lying." Joey strode past Yami and flashed him another smile. "Stop being a poor loser."

"I did _not_ lose!" Yami stomped after him, back to the table. "I _do_ not lose!"

Yugi beamed at Tristan, who looked just as stunned as Yami. Slowly, he turned to face Yugi, mouth round with appreciation of Joey's newly discovered wit.

"He _did_ bark." Tristan pointed out.

"But Kaiba didn't know that he barked," Yugi argued.

"But he still did bark."

"We don't know that for sure. He could have just been making the motions." Yugi barely noticed Yami, Joey and Mai rejoining them at the table, but Yami Bakura made himself noticeable by promptly sitting in Bakura's lap. Everyone stopped and stared at the two of them for a moment. Bakura was turning red, both probably from the combined weight of his yami and the stunned stares blaring down on him. Yami Bakura gave them one glare that said _What's it to you?_ before completely ignoring them and inspecting the remains of Bakura's plate.

"Anyway, I think we tied." Yugi said to Tristan, breaking the silence.

"No way! How do you tie a bet? He barked, fair and square." Tristan wasn't slow to return to the fight. "Give up your twenty now."

"But Kaiba didn't realize he barked, if that was even a bark." Yugi said. "So it violated the spirit if not the letter of the bet, since the point was to humiliate Joey and Kaiba."

"That's true," Tristan said thoughtfully. "Maybe we did tie."

"You bet on us again?" Yami asked mournfully.

"Not only that, but he bet against you getting your penalty." Tristan said.

"Aibou, I'm hurt." "You were just about to get into your fight with Yami Bakura." Yugi said defensively. "And you know how involved you get in Shadow Realm fights."

While Yami grudgingly agreed, Yami Bakura held up a sharp, slightly dirty steak knife, catching everyone's attention and causing Joey to edge away from the two of them.

"The ironic thing is," Yami Bakura announced with a nasty smile, testing the edge of the knife on his thumb, "If Wheeler's old ball-and-chain hadn't gotten so worked up and the Pharaoh's twerp hikari hadn't told him what was going on, Wheeler might never have had to do it!"

"Yami, be nice," Bakura said in a pained voice. "I can't feel my feet. Can you find a chair?"

"Well, I suppose," Yami Bakura pouted and stood. "Since you don't love me any more, I guess..."

"Don't be ridiculous, of course I do." Bakura sighed. "We'll cuddle once we get home, I promise."

"I'll hold you to that, wimp." Yami Bakura smiled - actually smiled, without any trace of vindictiveness. He went over to the next table, said, "Excuse me," to one man, then grabbed the back of his chair and dumped him out of it. He returned to the table, chair in hand.

"So you agree, we're tied?" Yugi asked Tristan. "We're square?"

"I suppose," Tristan said, still watching Yami Bakura as he obviously struggled with the decision of who to sit next to, Joey or Mai. The yami's lip curled as he considered Mai. Resignation tinted his features as he slammed his ill-gotten chair down between Joey and Bakura. He apparently satisfied himself with moving the chair as close as physically possible to his hikari and sliding his hand onto Bakura's leg. The latter turned a deep shade of red, but smiled at his darker half.

"Stop leering at me like that, Ryou," said Yami Bakura. "You're making a scene. Another scene." He added, smirking at Mai over Bakura. She chose to ignore him.

"You're the one who sat on my lap." Bakura grinned at his darker half and then jumped and yelped as something else occurred out of sight.

/That... disturbs me./ Yami said, staring at the couple.

/I thought there was something going on./ Yugi returned, watching the interaction between the two white-haired men. /I knew there was something that kept him away from the puzzle and stopped him from hurting Bakura./

/I didn't believe you,/ Yami admitted. Bakura jumped and slapped his yami's hand away.

"Stop that!"

"Why?" Yami Bakura purred.

"Because it's embarrassing!"

"Admit that you like it, and then I'll stop."

/It looks like they're doing it to themselves./ Yami grumbled.

Yugi rolled his eyes. Yami noticed.

/You don't think that looks wrong? It's like incest./

/They're obviously not very alike, and they're no more closely related than you and I are./ Yugi said patiently. /A couple of thousand years is a lot of generations, Yami./

/But look at them. I can't ever imagine doing that with you./

Yugi wrinkled his nose at Yami, who did it almost identically back at him. They both smiled and turned back to the table to find Yami Bakura glaring daggers at them.

"You have something to say, Pharaoh, you can say it out loud." He said out loud, drawing the attention of the table away from the conversations that had sprung up again.

"We were just commenting on how lucky you were to find each other," Yugi inserted his words in before his Yami could say something undiplomatic. "And how we definitely weren't right for each other in that capacity."

"Oh." Yami Bakura looked temporarily mollified, but recovered quickly. "I guess not, considering that opposites attract. Weaklings don't really attract weaklings that well."

Yami Yugi raised his eyebrows at the challenge and leaned over Joey to come face-to-face with Yami Bakura. Joey pushed his chair back to give the two spirits plenty of dueling room, looking almost bored. Yugi, used to Bakura's comments revolving around his lack of stature, ignored the insult for the greater entertainment of the upcoming verbal battle.

"If I'm weak, you must be weaker," Yami said. "Since I've beat you any number of times, in fair fights."

"That's the problem with you, pharaoh," Yami Bakura said with a sneer. "In a real contest, you couldn't compare."

"You want a real contest?" Yami came within intimidation distance of Yami Bakura. "I'll show you real. I challenge you..."

Yugi groaned and pulled at the back of Yami's shirt. "Come on, Yami, let it go for one night."

"Listen to your little light, Pharaoh," Yami Bakura smirked. "Whipped, are we?"

"Yami, sit down." Bakura said without looking away from Mai and their conversation. "I like it, and I want you to keep doing it."

Yami Bakura gaped at his 'meek' partner before sitting back down and attending to his hikari's request.

"Yes, _we_ are whipped." Yami smirked right back, plopping down in his chair. Joey pulled himself back up to the table and asked the temporarily unoccupied Yami a question about the Turtle Game Shop.

Yugi listened into the conversations proceeding around him, not feeling inclined to join into any of them. Beside him, Yami, Joey and Mai talked about the ins and outs of running a business. The Bakuras were having an inaudible conversation between them; gentle gazes and roaming hands the only indicator of what was being said, and Tristan and Leia were neck-deep in a conversation involving a second mortgage.

Feeling slightly lonely, he glanced around, looking for Tea. He found her in her large group, again talking to a gaggle of fans that hung on her every word. By chance, she glanced up and caught his gaze with her deep blue eyes. The world hung still for a moment as he examined her cool, collected gaze. Then the fog cleared from his brain and suddenly everything made perfect sense.

He knew why he felt left out in his best friends' company. He knew why he always felt as if something was missing in his life, in his day-to-day existence. It was something that he couldn't help, a hole that Yami, or his kids, or even his Grampa had never been able to fill.

Up until just now, he realized that he had been waiting for Tea - his first love, his lifelong crush, and his then-and-perhaps-still friend. Something deep inside him had decided to 'wait' for her, as if she was going to come running back to him, realize that it wasn't Yami that she loved but him. Someday, she would give up running all over the globe and realize that home really was the best place, give up her idiot French husband, and come back to Yugi. As she smiled distantly and looked away from him, the moment was broken but the clarity remained.

He realized that this deepest wish was never, ever going to happen. Tea was in love with power. It was that she admired in Yami - his dark, dangerous energy, that supernatural ability to completely crush all of his opponents. And now her fame brought her a measure of power. The fans that hung on her every word were her minions, the display of her power. She'd never give that up now that she had a taste of it, not for as long as she could hold onto it. Where the loyalty to her friends had gone, Yugi had no idea. Perhaps it was buried deep within her personality now, and would someday emerge again. But he knew something for sure. He could no longer keep waiting for Tea. It just wasn't healthy for him, and not fair to her. He had to pick himself up and move along.

To his surprise, he found that he was already well on his way to moving on. Something about Tea's behavior tonight just spurred it like an impatient horse on its way. Watching her artfully displayed limbs, he no longer saw the sole object of his desire, but a mature, married woman - a woman who used to be his friend, but who he now knew only distantly. She was still beautiful, it was true. However, it wasn't just her looks he had fallen in love with. It was the way she stuck by him when he was in school, never faltering in her friendship for an instant, even at the hardest times. His friend had protected him from school bullies and stayed with him as his life grew weirder and weirder. She had always encouraged him, cheered him on and buoyed him up, as she did for all of her friends. That was the Tea he had loved.

As for what was missing in his life, he knew the answer to that too. All of his friends had found someone to care for intimately. That was why Bakura was happy, why Joey was happy, and why Tristan was happy. They had found their love, and that strengthened them and tempered them until they were so much more together than apart. It was this that Yugi now knew he missed. He'd never dated seriously before - he'd broken it off after a few weeks, not feeling the chemistry. He realized that this was usually due to unfavorable comparisons to Tea, whom he rationalized as the only girl he mostly understood, who embodied his ideal woman.

"Yugi?" The query was both aloud and in his head. He blinked and turned back to the table, to find Joey, Mai and Yami looking at him quizzically.

"Yes?"

"Are you okay?" Yami asked with concern.

Yugi rewarded him with a brilliant smile, allowing the lightness of his heart to leak a little through their link. "Yes, I am. Better than I have been in years."

"I just invited everyone over to our house," Yami acknowledged his hikari's emotion with a smile. "Is that good with you?"

/Even Yami Bakura?/

"Even Yami Bakura," Yami agreed out loud, drawing a surprised blink from the former tomb robber.

"Sure," Yugi said, feeling as if he was on top of the world. He pushed his chair away from the table and jumped to his feet. "Let's go!"

- _mon petit chou_ is roughly translated as 'my little cabbage' in French. It's a term of endearment. Excuse my horrid grammar, it's been a few years since French class. Or, better yet, interpret it as Mai's horrible grammar since French isn't exactly one of her first languages, I don't think.

Well, how did I do? I have to admit; I like this chapter much more than chapter two. I think a lot of things turned out much better, such as the flow of it. Sorry it took so long to tackle, but I only recently found myself back on a Yu-Gi-Oh kick, and then this was just begging to be edited. Please clickety the review button and let me know how passionately you love this story!

PS. I, uh, may or may not be writing a sequel, and I may or may not be about, oh, 10 pages into that. Maybe. If you're very lucky, it may be about a certain Yami who hasn't quite found love yet, and the first of the adventures in Yugi has in dating land. Maybe. If you're extraordinarily lucky, and this YGO thing I'm on lasts more than a few weeks, the sequel may eventually see print.


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